If a user of a web browser selects a link to a web page and the server hosting that web page has failed, the user may receive an error message such as a “404 error”. Such a message is typically uninformative and is unhelpful from the user's perspective. Continued failure to load the web page, or other web pages hosted by the same failed server, may cause the user to take their business elsewhere.
There are a number of well known solutions to this problem, which typically involve putting additional nodes between the web browser and the web server. These include the likes of proxy servers and load balancers that are aware of the status of web servers and ensure that web requests are routed to working servers. U.S. Patent Application 2002/0056053 discloses an intermediate server for monitoring web requests and for redirecting client requests in the event of a failure.
Other solutions include clustering solutions that enable the IP address and host name of a failing web server host to be taken over by another host.
All of the existing solutions require either additional nodes or complex cluster management code, which adds to the cost and complexity of any solution. Matters typically relating to available budget and hardware constraints may mean that this is not be a viable option in some situations.